electronic age of simultaneity all these policies have had to be 
reversed, beginning with the new drive for decentralism and 
pluralism in big business itself. That is why it is so easy now to 
understand the dynamic logic of printing as a centralizing and 
homogenizing force. For all the effects of print technology now 
stand in stark opposition to the electronic technology. In the 
sixteenth century the whole of ancient and medieval culture 
stood in equally conflicting relation to the new print 
technology. In Germany, more pluralistic and tribally diverse 
than the rest of Europe, “the unifying services of printing in the 
formation of a literary language” were strikingly effective. And, 
write Febvre and Martin (p. 483):

     Luther made a language which in all domains approaches 
     modern German. The enormous diffusion of his works, 
     their literary quality, the quasi-sacred character which